By SIMON CONSTABLE
We understand. You’re freaking out. If only a little.
Sure, the Dow managed to plunge — and we mean plunge, more than 1,000 points yesterday morning — before recovering some. The end result over the past few market days is pretty awful. It’s now at its lowest close since February 2014.
But the real question, and we’re not just trying to make you feel better, is not where the market is heading, but where the economy is heading. And here, it’s not so bad.
Read more here.
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Monday, August 24, 2015
Forbes: 10 Key Takeaways From The Market Meltdown
By SIMON CONSTABLE
I’m getting a lot of questions about the stock market sell off. Here are ten takeaways.
1. Stocks don’t go up forever. That’s always been true. This time is no different.
2. Stocks don’t go down forever. You may recall that in the dark moments of early 2009 it looked like stocks were finished, like forever. Eventually they recovered. They will again.
Read more here.
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Forbes: Business Lessons From Bukowski
By SIMON CONSTABLE
A new book of Charles Bukowski’s writing just came out in late July, and I’m lucky enough to have read it. It has some useful lessons for students of business as well as budding writers.
On Writing, is a collection of letters, or fragment’s thereof, he wrote throughout his long career. Many of them have never before been published. In case it’s slipping your mind, among many other things, Bukowski wrote Ham on Rye, a working class answer to Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye.
The letters are superb. What interests me for this column is what you can learn if you are in business.
Read more here.
Friday, August 21, 2015
TheStreet: With S&P 500 in a 'Blue Period,' Investing in Art May Give You a Mona Lisa Smile
By SIMON CONSTABLE
NEW YORK (TheStreet)-- Price gains for works of fine art have ground to a near-halt. What's worse, even those small gains are increasingly driven by fewer and fewer mega-priced trophy pieces. It could mean continued bad news for auction houses like Sotheby's (BID) , but it's a boon to investors wanting a good buy outside of the stock market.
Average price gains for fine art sold at auction are close to zero this year, according to new data from the Mei Moses World All Art index, which tracks the prices of such works. On the chart below, the rolling three-year average of price movements for 2015 is barely even visible, just a touch over zero, assuming prices for the remainder of 2015 remain static. It's a world away from the double-digit gains seen year after year in the run-up to the financial crisis of 2008. Read more here.
NEW YORK (TheStreet)-- Price gains for works of fine art have ground to a near-halt. What's worse, even those small gains are increasingly driven by fewer and fewer mega-priced trophy pieces. It could mean continued bad news for auction houses like Sotheby's (BID) , but it's a boon to investors wanting a good buy outside of the stock market.
Average price gains for fine art sold at auction are close to zero this year, according to new data from the Mei Moses World All Art index, which tracks the prices of such works. On the chart below, the rolling three-year average of price movements for 2015 is barely even visible, just a touch over zero, assuming prices for the remainder of 2015 remain static. It's a world away from the double-digit gains seen year after year in the run-up to the financial crisis of 2008. Read more here.
Thursday, August 20, 2015
TheStreet: Six Reasons to Discount Dire Warnings on the Stock Market
By SIMON CONSTABLE
NEW YORK (TheStreet)-- All summer long, it seems we've been warned that stocks are just moments away from falling off a precipice and into oblivion. But I'm still skeptical. Why? There is rarely an announcement at a market top.
Here are some other reasons to be broadly bullish on stocks like those in the S&P 500 and the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) exchange-traded fund that tracks that index.
Read more here.
NEW YORK (TheStreet)-- All summer long, it seems we've been warned that stocks are just moments away from falling off a precipice and into oblivion. But I'm still skeptical. Why? There is rarely an announcement at a market top.
Here are some other reasons to be broadly bullish on stocks like those in the S&P 500 and the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) exchange-traded fund that tracks that index.
Read more here.
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
TheStreet: Surprise! The Job Market Is Actually Better Than You Think
By SIMON CONSTABLE
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Looking at the monthly government jobs data can leave you with a lot of guesswork and a nagging doubt that the new positions might all have been minimum wage. On top of that, there's the worry that the first set of figures will be dramatically reduced later. It can give you that sinking feeling similar to playing a distressing game of "Snakes and Ladders," when you slide all the way back down the board.
But there is another, little-used data point you can add to the equation that removes some of the uncertainty, and gives a more comprehensive view: Treasury tax withholding receipts.
Read more here.
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Looking at the monthly government jobs data can leave you with a lot of guesswork and a nagging doubt that the new positions might all have been minimum wage. On top of that, there's the worry that the first set of figures will be dramatically reduced later. It can give you that sinking feeling similar to playing a distressing game of "Snakes and Ladders," when you slide all the way back down the board.
But there is another, little-used data point you can add to the equation that removes some of the uncertainty, and gives a more comprehensive view: Treasury tax withholding receipts.
Read more here.
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
TheStreet: Time To Buy Emerging Market Debt?
By SIMON CONSTABLE
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Emerging markets bonds have been on the skids, which is just one of the reasons you should consider adding some to your portfolio. Benefits of doing so include better yield and more diversification.
Overseas investors have become increasingly concerned by a slowing China, falling commodity prices and stagnant Europe. As a result, emerging market bonds have sold off. For instance, the iShares J.P. Morgan USD Emerging Markets Bond (EMB) exchange-traded fund, which tracks a basket of emerging market debt from countries such as Argentina, Poland, Uruguay and Peru, has dropped around 3% over the past three months. Read more here.
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